A video purporting to
originate from an al-Qaeda-linked militant group has called for attacks on
shopping centres in London including Oxford Street and Westfield Stratford
City.
In the video, which is being
examined by police specialists, the extremist group al-Shabab says it wants its
supporters to carry out an attack in the UK similar to the deadly 2013 shooting
at the Westgate Mall in the Kenya.
A total of 67 people died in
the attack on the Kenyan shopping centre, which lasted over a number of days in
September 2013. The video says that attack, in the country’s capital of
Nairobi, was carried out in retaliation for the country’s military involvement
in Somalia.
The 76-minute cut features a
collage of news footage of the fighting of the previous attack as well as a
balaclava-clad man talking to camera.The narrator of the clip warns of more
attacks in the east African country, but also identifies targets in the West.
Oxford Street and a Westfield
shopping centre in London are identified, as well as the vast Mall of America
in the US city of Minneapolis and the West Edmonton Mall in the Canadian
province of Alberta.
However, the authenticity of
the video could not be verified. Security has been increased at the North
American targets mentioned, the Press Association news agency reports.
Westfield Stratford City, one
of the purported targets
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